ECONOMY: We’re trusting CAC to attract more investors

THE Senate has expressed optimism that the Corporate Affairs Commission, CAC, is capable of attracting more investors into the country through the Ease of Doing Business.

Senate Chamber

It said the ease of doing business would make Nigeria become destination for local and foreign investors.

The chairman, Senate Committee on Trade and Investment, Senator Sabo Mohammed said this, yesterday, during an oversight visit to CAC facilities in Lagos.

Mohammed said: “I believe that within the next one year, we could achieve that if we remain focussed and resolve remaining challenges facing the commission.”

The chairman, who was represented by Mr. Nelson Effiong, stressed that the lawmakers were poised to assist the commission with legislation in actualizing its mandate.

He noted that the legislation would not be limited to Companies and Allied Matters Acts, CAMA, which bill is still pending before the House, saying, “we are aiming to introduce some checks to know what companies registered by the commission is doing, what the directors are engaging in and others to ensure transparency.”

Mohammed argued that if the checks were introduced, it would boost investor’s confidence, aid transparency in company registration and monitoring exercise in Nigeria.

In his remarks, the Chairman, board of CAC, Prince Dapo Abiodun hinted that the Commission would be introducing a software that would help link any individual to the company they registered.

While using BVN analogy, Abiodun, who assumed office recently, lamented that there was no agency that could assist in linking an individual, who owns different companies, to those companies except making open declaration.

He said: “I believe that bringing that to bear would help to instil transparency in company registration and monitoring. Today, an individual can have 10 different companies but there is no agency that can help to disclose that the individual owns those companies or a certain number to link him to them.

“We must be able to track how many companies the person has and if they were registered, found guilty of defrauding people or not and to determine if such person is eligible to register a company, for instance, if the person had been declared bankrupt earlier, he cannot register a company.”

On his part, the acting Registrar General, Azuka Azinge said it has a strategy to ensure transparency, even as he hinted that the commission has delisted about 40, 000 companies from its record.